


Flight of Future Days

by Goddess47



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 03:07:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3472157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goddess47/pseuds/Goddess47
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unscheduled Gate dial-in brings Sam Carter mysterious gifts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flight of Future Days

**Author's Note:**

> For 2015 SG-1 Alphabet Soup - "Z"

"Unscheduled off world activation!" 

Sam Carter locked her computer screen and went racing to the Gate room. She tapped her foot impatiently when she had to wait for an elevator to go down the four floors to the Gate Room.

"What do you have?" she demanded, dropping into the seat next to Walter. 

He nodded at the now quiet Gate. "We had a brief connection, but no IDC," he replied. "The source seems to be blocked but it was an 8 symbol address."

"Pegasus?" Sam asked.

"Need to verify that," Walter replied. "But there was a data burst. I've isolated it for you to look at."

"Thanks," Sam answered absently. She started to dig into the Gate logs to see what she could find out about the dial-in.

"Okay, almost certain this was from Pegasus," Sam decided, starting to read the logs. "But it's not an address I'm familiar with."

"What ya got, Carter?" Jack O'Neill gave the illusion of _wandering_ into the Gate Room. Sam knew he had been in meetings with yet another group of IOA representatives, all of who were attempting to blame the SGC for 'losing' the city of Atlantis.

O'Neill was 'hiding' from Homeworld Security and Washington politicians at the SGC. His rationale was that their off world allies needed some care-and-feeding, but he really just wanted to hang out where he could 'get his head on straight.'

Sam secretly cheered on McKay, Sheppard and Woolsey for stealing Atlantis, leaving Earth six months ago to go back to Pegasus. There was even a part of her that wished they had asked her to go with them, but she knew she could help everyone better from Earth.

"Brief wormhole, made contact before dropping, probably from Pegasus but we won't know for sure until we do some more analysis," she reported. "Walter has a data burst that was received when the worm hole was connected. It's isolated at the moment, and the next thing we're going to look at."

"Atlantis?" O'Neill asked, raising an eyebrow.

She shrugged. "Most likely, but we won't know for a bit."

"Think it's something malicious?" O'Neill went on.

"Again, no idea," she replied. "If it's really Atlantis, I'm going with 'probably not.' But we'll handle it with kid gloves until we know more."

"Okay, then." She knew O'Neill was as frustrated as she was with those answers. "Keep me in the loop."

"Will do," she replied.

O'Neill went back to his meeting, while Sam and Walter worked to move the data burst to an isolated computer where Sam could work on it. She'd have to think about who, if anyone, she'd ask to help her.

Sam debated about where to start and figured the data burst would be more important. She downloaded it to a disposable laptop and gingerly looked at the file.

Not totally surprised, the 'outer wrapper' was a semi-sophisticated cipher code and the encryption screamed _Rodney McKay_ at her. Knowing it was from Rodney made it, relatively, easy to open.

The message was brief.

_Sam, sending some presents your way, but since it's a 3rd party delivery, no ETA. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth._

_\--MRM_

_PS - Found a puzzle I think you'll enjoy._

Sam sat back and considered her options. 

The larger part of the data burst was further encrypted. Pretty sure it was from Rodney, she knew it wouldn't be impossible to solve, but he did enjoy giving her a challenge. Rather than take the time with that part now, she decided to move on to the Gate logs.

"Carter?" O'Neill was at the door of her lab. 

She sat up and stretched. "Hey! What time is it?"

"Late," O'Neill answered. "Almost midnight."

"Damn," she replied. "Cassie's in town for two days, and she's staying at my place. We were going to go to a movie or something."

"She called Daniel earlier, and he warned her you might not make it out of here too early," O'Neill grinned. "I think he went over there to visit."

"Oh, good," Sam sighed. "Glad she didn't have to be alone all night. She'd have managed, it's just that we haven't had a chance to talk in person in a while."

"Well, at this point, unless there's something important, you should take a break and take tomorrow off like you had planned," O'Neill said firmly.

Sam sat back in the chair, reluctant to leave just as yet. 

"Sam..." O'Neill growled. 

"Yeah, okay," she agreed, reluctantly. "There's nothing that's going to happen soon." She recounted Rodney's message, and her conclusions about the dial-in.

"Almost certain it's from somewhere in Pegasus, but not necessarily from Atlantis," she reported. "I've compared the dial-in to other Atlantis dial-ins, and there are enough differences in the connection signature that I'm pretty sure it's not from the city."

"Thought Atlantis had the only crystal that could dial us from Pegasus," O'Neill asked.

"The only _known_ crystal," Sam replied gently. "Doesn't mean there wasn't a backup, somewhere."

"Fucking Ancients," O'Neill swore.

"Amen," Sam answered.

"Okay, close up, and get out of here," O'Neill directed. "Unless you tell me there's some kind if immediate danger, stay home and do whatever girlie things you and Cassie do."

"You coming for dinner?" she asked.

"Youbetcha," O'Neill promised.

It took Sam another week to get through the encryption for the rest of the message. Looking through the file, she knew it was a good thing she was still isolated from the SGC network. She stared at it for a long time before she saved it, turned off the computer and went to talk to O'Neill.

"Hey!" Sam said cheerfully. "How about some lunch? I could use some air."

O'Neill raised an eyebrow. _Important?_ "I happen to have some free time."

Sam gave a terse nod but kept up the smile. "We can get some pizza," she suggested.

"Want to include Daniel and Teal'c?" O'Neill asked. _Do we need some security?_

"Teal'c got a message this morning and went off to Dakara," Sam informed him. "But Daniel could join us." _We should be okay._

The pizza place wasn't crowded and they got a table in the back room separated from the other guests. They waited until their food had been delivered before O'Neill said, "So, what's up?"

"That data burst from the other day," Sam started. They nodded. "It's essentially from the future. Or at least part of it."

"Carter! Time travel?" O'Neill whined. "You know that gives me a headache!"

She grinned. "Sorry! But, that's what it looks like."

"What makes you think that what you have is from the future? And where did Rodney get it?" Daniel asked.

"It's definitely from Atlantis," Sam answered. "The file has headers from the city database."

"Fucking Ancients," O'Neill muttered.

"I know," Sam sighed. 

"What did it say?" Daniel asked.

"It had information on an advanced power source," Sam said. "It'll take some time to work through the math, and then some work to actually build the device, but it should be do-able."

"What kind of advanced power source?" O'Neill asked.

"Not quite unlimited," Sam hedged.

"But close?" Daniel asked.

"Close." Sam agreed.

"And dangerous, if the wrong people get their hands on it, I assume," O'Neill frowned. 

"Yup," Sam agreed.

"Damn," O'Neill replied. He took another piece of pizza.

"Now what?" Daniel asked.

"I'd like to work on the math, at least," Sam replied. "I'd like to get some help, though."

"Who?" O'Neill asked.

"Well, Jeannie Miller would be an asset," Sam proposed. "And if I have her work off site, it'll help keep attention off the project."

"At least she has the proper security clearance," O'Neill agreed. "Will it be safe?"

Sam had to shrug. "If I deliver the files to her personally, and make sure she keeps it secure, it's no worse than dealing with the moles we have in the SGC. She's the only one I'd trust with this."

"True," O'Neill had to agree. He didn't have to like it, but the reality was there were too many members of the SGC who had multiple masters. Between the Trust, NID and the free-lancers selling information to the highest bidder, O'Neill often wondered if there was anyone outside SG-1 and his immediate staff that actually worked for just the SGC.

Sam worked on the problem on and off, as she had time. Irregular discussions with Jeannie Miller helped move the process along. But Jeannie was doing most of the work, since Sam had other work and missions to deal with.

Sam had come to have a love/hate relationship with serendipity. At the same time Jeannie reported she had done as much as she could with the math, they got a report from an ally that there was a 'package' that had Sam Carter's name on it.

Remembering the original message from Rodney McKay, Sam decided to go and see what was going on.

"This is it?" Sam asked, eyeing the crate warily. It was the size of two-drawer file cabinet and probably weighed almost fifty pounds.

"Yes," Nath, the local headman said. "Traders asked if we knew your name. They brought the box and we paid them, hoping you would be interested."

"We certainly are," Sam agreed. "What do we owe you?"

Sam let Daniel haggle the price, knowing it was only fair that they reimburse Nath and his village for what they had paid, as well as give them a reasonable profit on the transaction.

Back at the SGC, Sam looked over the crate carefully. If it was booby trapped, she didn't want anyone to get hurt. But it was also carefully sealed; no one had been able to open it before it got to her.

Actually opening the crate turned out to be simple. It was biometric, taking both her handprint and a retinal scan to open the crate.

"Where'd they get those?" O'Neill asked when she told him.

Sam shrugged. "Atlantis. We did enough of this sort of thing when I was working there that it would probably be in the city database."

"What the fuck was McKay thinking?" O'Neill demanded.

"It's about the safest way to ensure the crate was delivered intact," Sam answered.

"So?" O'Neill asked. "What ya get?"

"ZPMs," Sam grinned. 

"What?" O'Neill's jaw dropped. "Plural?"

"An even dozen," Sam confirmed.

"Where'd they come from?" O'Neill asked. "Atlantis was always running through those like water."

"It's the other part of the equation," Sam said. "Literally. With the equations Jeannie has worked through, the ZPMs serve as the batteries for the power source. We still have to work through the engineering, but, well, these ZPMs and the generator we can build will provide enough energy to power the globe for the next couple hundred years."

"Carter!" O'Neill exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know," Sam sighed. 

"How long would it take to build your generator thingy?" O'Neill asked.

Sam shook her head. "No idea just as yet," she admitted. "Maybe a couple of years."

"What do you need?" 

"No one can know what we have here," she started. "If _anyone_ knows what's here, they'll disappear faster than you can blink. Everyone will have a legitimate reason to have _just one_ , and I suspect it takes all twelve to get the generator running."

"That's not going to be easy," O'Neill frowned. 

"The fact that I'm the only one that can open the box will be useful," she said. "If we can get it out of here without anyone knowing that it's even here, that would be better."

"Where would you put it?" O'Neill asked.

Sam frowned for a moment, then grinned. "If I don't tell you, you have plausible deniability."

"True," he admitted. "You'll keep it safe?"

"Promise," Sam replied. "I think I figured where it came from."

"Besides Atlantis?" O'Neill said.

"Well, it is from Atlantis," Sam explained. "But Atlantis in the future. That accounts for the not-quite-right information in the Gate logs. They've somehow gone to the future, found the ZPMs and the power source information, and sent it back to us."

"Why would they do that?" O'Neill was puzzled. "I mean, they don't owe us anything."

"If they're in the future, let's hope they know something we don't," Sam pointed out. 

With some help from Siler, Sam and Daniel managed to get the crate out of the mountain and into the back of a pickup truck she had rented. She figured someone needed to know what she was doing, and Daniel was the best insurance she had.

They drove north to Denver. Sam figured the bigger city would provide at least the illusion of security that Colorado Springs wouldn't provide. 

When she explained her plan to Daniel, he laughed at her. "Really? You think that's going to work?" he said.

She shrugged. "If you have anything better to suggest, I'd be glad to hear it!"

"No, no, no." Daniel shook his head. "It's almost so much of a cliche that it should work."

"That was my thought," Sam said.

Sam had done the research ahead of time and followed the GPS to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, on the same block as the Denver Zoo. They met a friend of Siler's at the loading dock. The man introduced himself as "Steve" and helped them load the crate on to a dolly.

"It's going to be labeled as 'on loan from the personal collection of Meredith McKay,' as you requested," Steve told them as he handed them a business card.

Daniel snickered. 

"Daniel!" Sam admonished him.

"Come on," he rolled his eyes. "It is funny!"

"When you're ready to pick it up, bring that card back," he said. "Even if I'm not here, it has the storage number on the back."

Sam turned over the card. _Z47-McKay_. She had to laugh.

"Thanks!" she said.


End file.
